Prior to the introduction of plastic bags, garbage and other trash were normally disposed of in paper bags. Such paper bags were usually obtained from grocery stores during shopping trips and after emptying were utilized by lining of waste baskets or other trash receptacles to eliminate the necessity of a cleaning operation when messy trash was involved. Grocery stores have recently attempted to convert from the use of paper bags to plastic bags having looped handles in view of the tremendous cost savings involved. This is particularly important for grocery stores in view of the low profit volume of the grocery industry. However, there has been some reluctance to such conversion due to the widespread and long usage of paper bags as discussed above.
U.S. Pat. 1,653,393 of Cox discloses a bag holder having a pair of inverted U-shaped members that are connected by an upper hinge structure and inserted within a bag to hold the bag open during filling. Such a structure is not particularly desirable because the inverted U-shaped members are directly exposed to messy waste and thus must be cleaned after removal from the filled bag.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,633,859 Vosbikian; 3,826,455 O'Donnell; and 4,364,534 Valesko disclose bag holders having inverted U-shaped members that are supported by bases which extend across the U-shaped openings of the inverted U-shaped members to provide upwardly projecting support thereto during use. Specifically, the Vosbikian patent has bases that extend diagonally with respect to the supports in a crossing relationship with each other, while the O'Donnell patent has a solid base and the Valesko patent has a rectangular wire base. Each of these types of bases make it difficult to store the bag holder in certain obstructed spaces such as underneath a kitchen sink where the bag holder may have to straddle a floor obstruction or another object stored below the sink.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,122 Christie and 4,332,361 McClellan disclose bag holders for trash bags having looped handles. In the Christie patent, the trash bag holder has a welded wire construction that opens forwardly and upwardly with a construction that does not particularly lend itself to compact storage. In the McClellan patent, the bag holder is designed to be mounted on a vertical wall or door and thus cannot be used standing along such as below a kitchen sink.